Riptide Blue C8 Z06 Gets Full PPF Wrap, Window Tint, Ceramic Coating & Wheels Off Detail

Thanks for coming back to our channel! We hope you enjoy following along with our process of applying PPF and ceramic coatings to this beautiful Riptide Blue C8 Z06.

This particular client intends to drive his Z06 quite a bit and enjoy it on backroads, so we knew paint protection film was a must. Based off the intended use, we determined that full vehicle coverage using Xpel paint protection film was going to be extremely important to keep this Corvette free of rock chips and damage from random debris in the road for years to come

The first step to any PPF or ceramic coating job is to eliminate any contaminants that may be bonded to the surface. Even though the car is brand new, they still pick up contaminants, most commonly in the form of rail dust. The metal dust particles love to bond themselves to the paint, leaving a rough and uneven surface. Even a single spec of dirt or sand will become very obvious once the paint protection film is applied to the paint surface. To ensure the best possible install, we use a two part decontamination process, the initial step is via chemical during our wash process and the second is manually with a clay bar by hand.

Once the surface is perfectly clean and smooth, we can begin apply the paint protection film to all of the desired surfaces. This Z06 will have paint protection film applied to literally every painted surface of the vehicle. This will ensure it looks new for many years to come, even with your typical mileage from weekend drives, rallies, etc.

You may be asking yourself if the vehicle should be polished or paint corrected prior to installing the PPF. In most cases, on a new vehicle, this step is not necessary. The nature of the paint protection film will actually make almost any paint surface look perfect, even if its completely swirled and scratched up. Now since this Z06 was literally brand new, it luckily had little to no defects at all. This is not always the case though and we do address anything major before applying PPF if needed. There are a few different reasons we use this methodology and it is mostly industry standard at this point. The first is what I just described above, the PPF will make the paint (on a new car) look perfect even if it has light marring from transport, etc. The most important part is the prep to remove anything bonding to it and make the surface as smooth as possible. The next reason is that by not polishing on the car, we are actually preserving your clearcoat layer by not unnecessarily polishing on vehicle prior to PPF (unless absolutely needed). The final reason is the film install can become more difficult once the car has been polished. The paint becomes very sticky and tacky and even with a slip solution, the film doesn't want to slide around and can cause unsightly grab marks and what we call "strawberries" or "veins" in the film. By simply prepping the vehicle, it keeps the paint somewhat slick and allows us to have a cleaner install.

Now that we have applied Xpel film to the entire vehicle, we can start the ceramic coating process. We use an alcohol spray to remove any remaining oils or slips solutions from the install. We have done many vehicles for this client over the years and he has always loved the Gtechniq product, so he opted for our Presidential Reserve Protection package. This includes Gtechniq Crystal Serum Ultra, followed with EXOv5 on all of the exterior surfaces. We also applied a combination of these coatings on the door jambs, trunk plastics, interior carbon, etc.

This package also includes our wheels off detailing and coating package. By removing the wheels from the vehicle we can clean the wheel spokes and inner barrels very thoroughly. This particular Corvette arrived with some really nasty stuff all over the wheels. I was actually a little concerned that they might be permanently stained. However, with some good old TLC and elbow grease, they actually cleaned up very nicely! Once we were happy with the outcome, we applied Gtechniq Crystal Serum Ultra and EXOv5 to the entire wheel, inside and out. As part of this package we also clean and ceramic coat the brakes calipers, as well as the plastic and fabric fender liners. This gives that extra pop on presentation and makes cleaning these surfaces much easier for the person caring for the car.

To give the occupants some added privacy and keep them cool, we chose to use XPEL Prime Plus XR in the 15% shade on the side windows and clear on the windshield. This shade compliments the dark Riptide blue very well of course too! Even more important than that, it protects the interior with UV protection and offers the occupants unmatched heat rejection since it is a IR film.

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